I’m not
overly familiar with work of Gotterdammerung, but I have always noticed it
is full of life, bordering on rampant. Hearing the different sides to their
sound on this compilation which spans over ten years, including some previously
unreleased tracks, somewhat blunts the excesses and confuses the listener
initially. Increase exposure makes you realise how shrewdly focussed they
usually are, despite the occasional wayward bleepy nuances or hyped up, pumped
up noisefests, where the vocals are forced to endure second place. The closest
comparison I can muster is a modern day Killing Joke, for people who remember
Killing Joke’s late 80’s phase, which was a groaning, thrashing
sound, with cross-connecting rhythmic assaults, where the variety of the songs
was always united by that central, thumping attack.

It doesn’t
matter to me that this covers a wide time period, or how best they might have
suited the Gothier era, or Industrial dalliances, or even the dance collisions.
I just go along for the scary ride, impressed by the creepy background of
‘Lesser Deity’, and the skittish Goth fog of ‘Left Hand
Rapture’, where they are slithering quickly, as if Bauhaus and the Sisters
had some secret pact. As choppy as it is stroppy, a snakelike bass fashions
it into poppy poison.

The dance elements
in ’Skincree’ are very controlled, with attractive vocals and
accessible rhythmic bruising, before we find ourselves with the isolated ‘Rogues
In A Nation’ which is a traditional Celtic number, sung by Iris Van
Dongen, with doomy sparse percussion. When that is followed by some grime
which glitters, in ‘Echoes Of Despair’ you’re being swept
away by more rabble-rousing, then pulled sideways, after an interesting poetic
opening, by ‘Dance In Devachan’ whose energy constantly expands.

‘Bodybag’
is a fast-shuffle rave item, harking back to early Prodigy with snapping,
sharp vocals, but ‘Lust – the Agony’ is a piano doodle,
followed by the frenetic squalls of ‘Pile On The Agony.’ ’Life
a$ Art’ is wonderful, with slower, stompier dance intentions, sturdy
bass, piercing guitar and saucy vocals, while we hit two more linked tracks,
with ‘Fears – Interlogue’ ticking slowly, allowing whispers
through some dense guitar smog, before ‘Fears Behind The Mask Of Untold
Mystery’ takes a less obvious route, being a slow chiming crawl which
wriggles playfully and ends abruptly.

After that you
have the flowing, flaming guitar gawf which zigzags happily in the drama of
‘Hall Of Fame’, the shimmering live morass of ‘Fortress’
and an oddly purposeful, if weird closer, ‘Vision Of Wane’ going
from children’s singalong to lumbering noise with strident vocals.

They’re
not really like anyone else, with their lack of unnecessarily complex or obfuscating
Industrial-style overlays. They always seem to just want to get on with it
and smash their noise at you. And it works.